In telecommunications networks, such as LTE/SAE networks, new nodes and links between nodes are added often as the network grows or is updated. In an LTE/SAE network, MME nodes and eNodeBs may be added to increase the network coverage area and number of subscribers supported, for example. Service providers and network operators typically monitor their network to evaluate operating conditions and to identify and correct network problems. A monitoring system used for this purpose needs to know the up-to-date network topology under test, including the new monitored nodes and links, in order to provide correct and accurate measurements and in addition to correlate the measurements to nodes and links (e.g. correlate the alarms to the network entity affected by such event).
The network topology used by the network monitoring system may be updated manually by entering each new node and all associated new interconnections to other nodes. However, manual configuration of the network topology is not desired because it is labor intensive and error prone. Additionally, such manual topology updates typically are delayed some period of time after actual physical updating of the network. In the time between a network update and a manual topology update, the network monitoring system will not be able to properly analyze network protocols or operation.